Andrea Casiraghi

BIOGRAPHY

The accession of his uncle Prince Albert to the Monegasque throne in 2005, thrust Andrea Casiraghi even further into the spotlight. Princess Caroline's already popular eldest son became second in the line of succession after her.

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Though he doesn't have a title, Andrea projects the glamorous image of a 21st-century prince.

He inherited the dashing looks of his father, Italian businessman Stefano Casiraghi, who died in a tragic speed boat accident in 1990. Andrea was just six years old at the time.

Born on June 8, 1984 in Monte Carlo, Andrea grew up on his family's French country estate in St Remy de Provence, along with his siblings Charlotte and Pierre. This simple upbringing was a far cry from the glamour of Monaco where his grandfather Rainier reigned.

Their family grew again in 1999, when his mother married Prince Ernst of Hanover and gave birth to a girl named Alexandra.

Caroline sent her children to school in Paris, where Andrea shone for his skills as a skier, horserider, footballer and long distance runner. Multilingual, he speaks French and English as well as some German and Italian.

The royal studied for his baccalaureate in the French capital, before earning a degree in international politics from the American University of Paris and a masters in international affairs from The New School in New York.

Encouraged by his mother, he became patron of the Motrice Foundation, which funds research into cerebral palsy and supports AMADE, a Monegasque children's charity.

But Andrea is not just the principality's potential ruler. With his rumpled surfer looks and Hollywood lineage – thanks to his late grandmother Grace Kelly – he's the subject of intense media interest.

In 2002, he was named one of the world's most beautiful people alongside a host of film stars in the US' People magazine and also won HELLO! Online's Most Stylish Royal poll, pipping Prince William to the top spot.

He was linked to several beautiful and wealthy young women, before he begun stepping out with striking Colombian heiress Tatiana Santo Domingo eight years ago.

The couple quickly earned a jetsetting reputation, being spotted in Ibiza, Cannes and the Austrian ski resort of Zurs, as well as Britain, where she studied at the American University of London. By 2012, they were engaged and expecting their first child.